State police say jumper backs up traffic on Route 140 in Taunton

Sunday

Apr 13, 2014 at 5:18 PMApr 13, 2014 at 11:14 PM

Marc Larocque Enterprise Staff Writer @Enterprise_Marc

A 41-year-old New Bedford woman jumped from an overpass onto the highway on Sunday afternoon, before a MedFlight helicopter was called to the scene, halting traffic for about an hour, according to state police.

Massachusetts State Police received a phone call at 4 p.m. stating that a woman was climbing the fence at the Hollaway Street overpass, before jumping down onto Route 140 near Exit 10, state police Lt. Dan Richard said.

The woman was taken by MedFlight to Rhode Island Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Richard said. It was the second weekend in a row that someone jumped from an overpass onto a highway in the Taunton area and survived.

The Taunton and Lakeville fire departments were dispatched to assist at the scene.

Richard said he did not have any information on damaged cars that were visible at the scene, or whether they were connected to crashes resulting from the woman jumping onto the highway.

Traffic began moving again on Route 140 South at about 5 p.m. and started moving slowly on the northbound side a few minutes later. Richard said that while Route 140 southbound was shut down to help treat the woman, the northbound lane was partially shut down for investigation.

No further information was immediately available from state police.

Throughout the lengthy incident, motorists who came to a stop on the highway got out of their cars as they waited for emergency responders to finish their work. Many wondered what happened, peering ahead, and one man took out an acoustic guitar to play as he sat on the side of the road.

The Lakeville Fire Department confirmed details behind the damage to vehicles visible at the scene. On the southbound side of the highway, where one lane was closed by police, a car failed to slow down, causing a two-car crash and catching fire.

“We cannot stress how important it is to use caution when emergency vehicles are working in the roadway,” the Lakeville Fire Department said in a statement. “While working on a patient on Route 140, the highway was limited to one lane of travel. During this time, a motorist failed to use caution and slow down past emergency vehicles. This motorist then struck another vehicle sending it towards working emergency crews causing three of our firefighters, along with members of the State Police and Taunton Fire Department, to jump over the guardrail to avoid being struck by the vehicles.”

The Lakeville Fire Department said one of its ambulances, along with two AMR ambulances, a Freetown Fire Rescue vehicle and an Eas-Care ambulance took patients injured in the crash to the Morton Hospital in Taunton.

A similar incident happened last Saturday in Raynham, when a Taunton man survived a suicide attempt when he jumped off of an overpass onto Route 24, police said.

In that case, the unidentified man was not hit by any vehicles and was taken by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital, Raynham police said. That time, at least one motorist stopped to try to convince the man not to kill himself, Raynham Police Chief James Donovan said.